Divert The Serfs To Maintain The Empire

Op Ed commentary |

Oh my goodness. All we get thrown at us through this controlled mainstream media is dribble. I mean, here we have the states and cities of our fine nation broke and searching for ways to stay above water. The headlines tell us that now the state governments, due to not enough funding coming from Uncle Sam for infrastructure repairs, want to implement tolls or raise the ones already in place. In my area of Central Florida, they want to put tolls on our most trafficked highway, I – 4. We are told that the daily commuter, who uses this key artery to get to and from work, will pay an average of over $ 8.00 a day. Do you think their employers are going to subsidize these commuting workers? Do you think that small businesses can even afford to do that?

All you will ever get from the mainstream media and 2 Party hacks are diversions and hot button issues that stay within the bounds of this phony Republican vs. Democrat debate. Never will you hear or read about the need for opening up Medicare for any working Americans who wish to pay in. Never will you be reminded that the top bracket for federal income taxes was at 90% when JFK took office, and over 70% when Reagan took office in 1981, not the current top rate of 39%. Why do the Democrats insist on lumping those lucky enough to earn $ 413,000 a year in the same bracket as those earning mega millions or even billions!? Does anyone realize that $ 413,000 a year may be a great amount to earn, when compared with those who struggle working full time at $ 20k and $ 30k a year, but not nearly as excessive as the mega millions of dollars the ¼ of 1% of Americans are making each year? In 2007, there were over 16 million ‘Millionaire Households‘ in our country. That has never been so high in the history of our 200+ year old nation! Those earning a couple of hundred thousand per year are mostly our small business people and professionals. They should never be put into the same tax basket with the CEOs and hedge fund bandits… never!

The primary goal of this embedded media has always been, for as long as this baby boomer can recall, to serve the Military Industrial Empire. They will report to we serfs a steady diet of scandals and minor frauds, usually perpetrated by individuals, and hardly ever corporations. They will always frighten us with exaggerated threats to our safety. You see, the boogeyman has to be out there (go and watch Shyamaian’s 2004 film The Village) to keep us all in line. Hitler and his gang had the Bolsheviks and the Jews as their threat, and later on the Poles, Czechs and finally the French, British and Yanks. Bush and his gang had Bin Laden (who was lucky if he even commanded less than a thousand lackeys) and then of course the former CIA asset Saddam Hussein. This American Military Industrial Empire will continually need newer sources of threats from abroad, whether it is the Iranians wanting to nuke us all, or now  ISIL and who knows who else. Not quite ready are the wizards who run this empire to push the Chinese front and center. You see, the Chinese don’t have to ‘rattle their sabers ‘at us to pose a threat. All they would have to do is pull their trillions of dollars out of our bond market, T bills, real estate and stocks…. “Brother can ya spare a dime?”

When is ‘enough‘ really enough for John and Joan Q. Public? When will the real silent majority of working stiffs demand that the military spending be drastically reduced, at least by 25%, and used to save our economy? No more schools and libraries feeling the cutting axe. No more millions of us without real affordable health coverage, instead of the con job called Obamacare giving away the store to the private insurers. No more cuts in street lighting, garbage pickup, mail delivery. No more closed or reduced firehouses and ambulance service… emergency hospital care… need I go on? How much higher can they nickel and dime us with more and more sales taxes and fees? How many more dollars taken out of public mass transit funding while they increase our gasoline taxes? How else can we serfs get to work each day? How much more can the working stiffs take?  My 86 year old compatriot John S. and I  took to the street corner of our town one lousy hour a week during rush hour, with our signs in hand: SAVE OUR CITIES… CUT MILITARY SPENDING 25% … END ALL OCCUPATIONS… CLOSE ALL FOREIGN BASES… Methinks that even the embedded local mainstream media would have had to cover us if we had instead of two out there, perhaps 100 or200 or ….. 

Philip A Farruggio is a semi retired baby boomer born and bred in blue collar Brooklyn NYC. He is the son and grandson of Brooklyn longshoremen, and educated at ‘ free tuition ‘ Brooklyn College, class of ‘ 74. Philip has written over 300 columns since 2001 and his work is found on many fine progressive sites like World News Trust, Nation of Change, Information Clearinghouse, Intrepid Report, Sleuth Journal, Dandelion Salad, Counterpunch and Dissident Voice. He can be reached at [email protected]